Journey of the Heart
by Browneyedmami
Summary: Ed and Al leave Resembol and Winry behind again with promises to return. Turns out it wasn't just Winry they left behind. Al returns early with a broken heart hoping for a peaceful reunion with his family. What he returns to leaves him devastated. And how come no one can find Ed?


Winry was good at remembering things. Sometimes those memories were not welcome, and other times they made her smile.

She would never forget the day Al and Ed returned with their bodies intact. Well, Ed still had his automail leg, but she wasn't complaining. It gave her something to still tinker with.

She remembered the tears of happiness she shed as she jumped into the boys willing embrace. She remembered the pie she baked Al and how she worried it wouldn't be good enough for him with it being his first pie since he got his body back. She remembered how sad for Ed she felt on learning he wouldn't be able to use alchemy, a big part of his identity anymore.

When the day came that both boys inevitably had to leave again, she was shattered. Al departed a few days before Ed did off to Xing. She remembered how sad Ed was that his brother was going off without him, but how happy he was to see him fully recovered. She remembered how in that moment she fell more in love with Ed than she knew she was capable of.

What she didn't want to remember, but did anyway was that night Al departed how feelings between her and Ed were confessed, how his kisses trailed along her neck and collarbone all the way down her body. She didn't want to remember how tingly her body felt, how one touch by him made her body writhe. She didn't want to remember how the day he left he made a promise to return and marry her.

She remembered when she found out that she was pregnant. She was scared of what Granny would say but she had been very supportive and excited for the child. She remembered when she thought she'd call Ed and tell him but ultimately decided not to right away since he had only been gone 2 months. She did eventually try to contact him later, but he was not reachable. She figured it could wait. She had a while before the baby was born anyway and everyone in Risembool was helpful and supportive.

As she came home that day from an automail house call, she saw something she never wanted to remember. Her Granny was out cold on the steps, looking almost peaceful laying there. She screamed and tried in vain to wake her up. She always knew the day would come, but she thought she'd live to see her great grandchild first.

In that moment, the stress of the baby, Ed and Al's departures and her Granny's death overwhelmed her and she screamed, suddenly feeling weakness in her legs and something warm dripping between them.

Blood! No, oh heavens no, not the baby too! She tried hard to get to a phone, to call a doctor, to call an ambulance for Granny she wasn't sure which anymore, she just knew she had to get to a phone, but she didn't make it. Her legs wouldn't let her and soon her vision clouded over and the world was dark.

She didn't remember the strong arms lifting her to bed or anything for the next two days.

Al couldn't be happier to be going home. His research completed, his heart broken from Mei rejecting him just before they were to be married, and not hearing from Ed recently was seriously taking a toll on him. He knew one of WInry's pies and seeing her and Granny would be something to soothe his frayed nerves.

Walking up the familiar path he wondered if Ed had kept in touch with Winry. He knew the two of them had thing for each other but he wondered if anything had ever been said. Guiltily, he realized he hadn't kept in touch with them either, and intended to make it up to them.

As he got closer to the house he could hear Den barking frantically. Figuring Den sensed his presence he started to run up the rest of the way, ready to announce his arrival and greet the family with hugs.

What he saw instead made his blood run cold. Granny looking peaceful in death on the steps and Winry a few feet away a pool of blood surrounding her. It was a scene of nightmares, and he wanted so badly to faint himself and pray for it to go away. But he couldn't. He had to be the strong one this time, Ed wasn't here. This time he had to be the one in charge.

He assessed the scene. It showed no signs of a struggle, but he didn't want to rule out foul play entirely yet. Granny looked almost happy in death. Winry wasn't dead, but she had lost a considerable amount of blood, mostly from the lower part of her body from what he could tell.

Suddenly Winry started to come to and Al fretted over her asking a lot of questions.

"Dead, theyre both dead" she whispered. Al understood Granny, but who was the second person?

Before he could ask, Winry supplied the answer for him before fainting again in his arms.

"The baby, my baby is gone"


End file.
